"It's yet another in a long series of diversions in an attempt to avoid responsibility." - Chris Knight
Archive for the ‘Web’ Category
Comcast Traffic Filtering Could Lead To Legal Showdown
October 23rd, 2007 by iDunzo
Comcast continues its double speak and carefully crafted workings regarding the company’s policy of throttling BitTorrent traffic, but already the lawyers are beginning to circle and Comcast could face lawsuits in the very near future.
CNet’s Chris Soghoian reports that because Comcast’s filtering technique uses forged TCP reset packets to disrupt traffic it is essentially impersonating its customers.
The forged headers allow Comcast to say it doesn’t block traffic — it doesn’t, the traffic continues to flow, it just gets altered into forged packets that constantly reset the peer connections.
But forging headers is hardly the “cutting edge technology,” Comcast claims it is and it may well be illegal. Assuming your identity and forging packets is roughly the same thing your friendly Nigerian e-mail scammer does to infiltrate your e-mail inbox.
As Soghoian points out, were Comcast to do to e-mail traffic what they do to BitTorrent traffic, they would be in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act and libel for fines and jail time.
So why can they get away with doing it to BitTorrent, Gnutella and Lotus traffic?
The answer is simply that no one has challenged them yet, perhaps they can get away with it, perhaps they can’t, but we won’t know until someone brings a suit against Comcast.
Many states have laws already on the books that make impersonating someone an crime, especially when the impersonation is intended to benefit the person doing the impersonating.
In this case, because Comcast stands to gain from filtering BitTorrent traffic — less strain on the network and BitTorrent is increasingly being used to deliver movies (legally), which makes it a Comcast competitor — the company may soon find itself a sitting duck for consumer lawsuits.
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Firefox 2.0.0.8 Released
October 19th, 2007 by iDunzo
Mozilla released Firefox 2.0.0.8 late last night and it’s highly recommended that you upgrade your install right away because of a nice list of security fixes.
The following security issues were fixed:
- URIs with invalid %-encoding mishandled by Windows
- XPCNativeWrapper pollution using Script object
- Possible file stealing through sftp protocol
- XUL pages can hide the window titlebar
- File input focus stealing vulnerability
- Browser digest authentication request splitting
- onUnload Tailgating
- Crashes with evidence of memory corruption (rv:1.8.1.8)
Firefox 2.0.0.8 is also compatible with Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard), although there are some known issues affecting some media plugins.
Posted in Security Patches + Software + Technology + Web | Comments Off on Firefox 2.0.0.8 Released
Mozilla Is Promising To ‘Rock’ The Mobile Web
October 10th, 2007 by iDunzo
Giving the mobile Web browser competition a shot in the arm, Mozilla’s Mike Schroepfer said in a blog post that Mozilla has big plans for the mobile Web.
Yes, a mobile version of Firefox is in the works, and should be ready next year.
The post showed up in Schroepfer’s blog yesterday and outlined all of Mozilla’s mobile plans, including updates on its technology, hiring, products, and partners.
According to Schroepfer, there’s a lot in store.
From his blog post:
Up until very recently device limitations required writing new mobile browsers from the ground up. Being able to leverage all the investments in the Mozilla platform across both desktops and devices is the right approach. There is far from a dominant player in this marketplace and even the best mobile browsers today have compromises in user experience, performance, and compatibility. There is still *plenty* of room for innovation.
I agree, there is still lots of room for improvement.
Just yesterday Opera, Freescale and NEC announced their own plans to improve the mobile browsing and mobile video experience.
Mozilla is promising a better experience, too. It has hired two new developers to head its mobile services operations and plans to offer a mobile version of Firefox that is as close to the desktop version as possible.
Schroepfer said mobile Firefox will be able to run Firefox extensions on mobile devices and allow others to build rich applications via XUL.
Part of the reason Mozilla held off on entering the market was that mobile devices didn’t have the right memory or CPU specs to make Mozilla happy.
Now that many phones — and smartphones in particular — are shipping with more memory and faster processors, Mozilla thinks now is the time.
The iPhone’s Safari browser really raised the bar when it comes to the mobile browsing experience.
The Nokia browser, which is based on Safari also performs well. Google is working on a mobile browser. Microsoft already has a mobile version of Internet Explorer. Opera is stepping up the competition.
Mozilla will be a little late to the game, but late is better than never.
Posted in Google + Software + Technology + Web + Wireless | Comments Off on Mozilla Is Promising To ‘Rock’ The Mobile Web
Google Maps Takes To The Subways
October 4th, 2007 by iDunzo
Google Maps has rolled some of the Google Labs public transit features into the main Google Maps page.
The new feature, previously available only through the Labs page, adds a new link to your Google Maps search results and shows you how to reach you destination via public transport.
Obviously the feature only works if your city happens to have decent public transportation and the routes have been added to Google’s index.
Driving directions are still the default view for search results in Google Maps.
To see what transit systems are included in Google Maps, take a look at the Google Labs page.
If you city isn’t currently part of Google’s listing, keep in mind that the company is always adding more transit systems.
In the past few weeks it has added San Francisco’s BART system, Santa Clara’s Valley Transportation Authority, and more. The public transport feature includes numerous listings in Japan.
The new public transport options on Google Maps include some nice features like adding time of day to see when trains are scheduled, and a price comparison between the cost of transit fares and the cost of driving.
You’ll also find links to the relevant public transit website (when available).
Posted in Google + Technology + Travel + Web | Comments Off on Google Maps Takes To The Subways
